No Kissing
by AmbroseAlert
Summary: It was Dean Ambrose's game to play but he just had one rule: No Kissing
1. Prologue: No Kissing

**So this is my first time ever posting anything I've ever written, so I hope people potentially read and like it.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own WWE or any of the characters mentioned. **

Prologue: No Kissing

_It was Dean Ambrose's game to play, but there was just one rule… No Kissing._

Dean Ambrose was known around his high school as being a bit of a "man whore". A childish term when it really came down to it, but that didn't make it any less true. With a new target of affection nearly every week, it was a well-known fact that getting tangled up with Dean was dangerous. He figures that's what's fun about it though, the danger. He figures that's why they always come crawling. Why they're so eager to get their hands dirty.

But the kissing thing, that's what got people. It was a secret that no one, not even Dean's best friend, knew the reason behind. And with every one night stand came with the desperate hope of breaking the rule. Oh, how every poor soul at McMahon High wished to be the one to break the No Kissing rule. It wouldn't happen though. Dean would be damned if he let it happen.


	2. Just Another Day

**Disclaimer: I do not own WWE or any of the characters mentioned.**

Chapter One: This Is Just Another Day In The Life

Dean walks into school Monday morning with a grin on his face. Another fantastic weekend; another notch in his belt. This weekend's feat was the lovely Emma. His grin hardened as he thought back. The Australian bombshell was filled to the brim with energy and flexibility. Not to mention, she was a runner, so she was in _great _cardiovascular shape. Dean thinks back on some of his past partners and decides that Emma probably outlasted them all.

Yeah, it was a great weekend.

"What are you all smiley about?" The voice came from Dean's best friend, Roman Reigns. Dean blinked once, snapping himself out of his self-made trance. "Oh wait, let me guess: it has to do with your most recent lay?"

Dean leans against his locker as Roman opens his own. "Emma's a little firecracker in the bedroom man, let me tell you. I'm thinking about extending her time."

Roman takes a moment to raise an eyebrow at the dirty blonde. "Wow, really? You haven't given a "Time Extension"," he accompanies the statement with air quotes made by his fingers, "since you slept with that Riley kid last year."

Dean smile's fondly at the memory. Alex Riley was a freshman when Dean and Roman were juniors. Of course, once big shot Dean Ambrose set his sights on little Alex Riley, the young brunette was eager to please, and willing to do whatever it took to do so. _Anything. _Dean would have been crazy not to grant an extension.

"Cute kid. He's with that Alicia Fox girl now huh?"

"He is." Roman confirms. "They're good together."

Dean nods absently, not really caring if they were good together or not. That wasn't his thing. Wasn't his area of experience. In his whole 19 years of life, he'd never been in a relationship and he very much planned to keep it that way. The whole concept and idea of relationships, well… It didn't jive well with him.

Before either one could say something more, John Cena approached the two. And as soon as his presence was felt, Dean could feel his entire mood going sour. Not only was John Cena Dean's polar opposite, but he was Roman's longtime boyfriend. Their relationship was one of the many, _many _reasons that Dean hates relationships. The whole, see each other every day, talking to each other every day, holding hands, kissing, cuddling, telling the other that they love then every damn second. It was disgusting.

"Morning sweetheart." John says after kissing Roman's cheek. Roman's smile makes Dean roll his eyes. And although he needs nothing from his locker, he opens it anyways.

"Hey. Why are you so late? You're usually here before us." Roman comments.

"I had to drive my dad to work. His car broke down."

Another eye roll from Dean. "Well aren't you such a saint?"

It's Roman's turn now to roll his eyes. John and Dean have never gotten along, and it bothered him to no end. He knew that it was because they had perfectly clashing personalities, and he knew that the friction between the two was mostly Dean's fault, but he wished that it didn't have to be that way. Why couldn't he have a happy group of 3 like everyone else in high school got to have?

"Taking my father, who bought my car for me in the _first _place, makes me a saint?"

"Everything you do makes you a saint, Cena." Dean replies, the sarcasm dripping from his tongue.

"Will you stop-"

"Alright alright." Roman says, linking his fingers with John and pulling him back a bit. "It's too early to be starting this. John, ignore him. And Dean, _play nice._"

"See, that's the thing Roman, why do _I _always have to play nice? Why don't you ask your pretentious boyfriend to stop acting so high and mighty all the time?" Dean shuts his locker after he speaks, the loud noise echoing through the halls.

"How am I acting high and mighty? For Christ's sake, Dean, I just took my _dad _to _work, _not walk and old lady across the damn street."

"Okay! Stop it guys, seriously." Roman says. When both men stay quiet, Roman sighs and turns to John. "Why don't you just meet me in homeroom? I'll be there in a second." He says, giving him a quick peck.

John nods before looking past his boyfriend and to Dean. The blonde's eyes are glued to the ground, and he takes the opportunity presented. "Talk some sense into your boy." He mouths, and Roman laughs, nods, and gives him one last kiss before allowing him to walk away.

"I saw him say that, by the way." Dean says, and Roman has to laugh. "I'm sorry." Dean offers.

The smile disappears from Roman's face as he nods, accepting the small sentiment. "What's with you today though? I know you and John don't usually get along but you started an argument out of nothing. And you were all happy earlier too; what happened to being all excited about Emma and the extension?"

The smaller sighs once more and leans his weight against the lockers again. He knows he was picking for an argument, and he knows that Roman and John know it too.

"I don't know, I just like fucking with him."

When Roman gives him a displeased look, all Dean can do is laugh.

"I don't know what to tell you, man. That's the honest truth. You're right, I was feeling good after this weekend, and you _know _that I like pissing people off. So why not piss off the one guy I hate the most?"

Roman frowned. "You don't hate him… Do you?" The frown was now a very vulnerable look of concern.

That made Dean stop and think for a moment. He knows that sometimes he can get carried away with his love of being an asshole, and he knows that this is one of those times. There's only one person on the face of the earth that he really can't stand to hurt, and that person is Roman. And as much as it irks, he knows that one of the best ways to hurt his best friend is by attacking the love of his life.

"I don't hate him man, you know that. You know that I'm just an asshole." When Roman only nods, Dean starts feeling a little worse. "Come on, man, don't do that. I'm sorry."

Roman chuckles, throwing a hand over to pat Dean's shoulder. "I know you are. Let's just go to class before we're late."

They start walking, and Roman just has to ask, "But honestly, you don't hate him, right?"

Dean grins at him. "I hate the way he is with you. He treats you too good."

Roman laughs, throwing a half-hearted punch at Dean's arm, to which the blonde laughs.

**A/N: Title from the song _Just Another Day_ by John Cena**


	3. Honest

**Disclaimer: I do not own WWE or any of the characters mentioned.**

Chapter Two: I Wish You Would Be Honest

Emma was great and all, but _oh _was Paige even better. After granting Emma her well-deserved extension, he happily moved on to the black-haired brit the next weekend. She had it all: She was tall, long hair, long legs, and a dark sexiness about her. And here he was, Sunday night, breathing heavily on his bed with the brit lying at his side, breathing equally as heavy. They had just finished up round 2, and Dean was feeling pretty damn good. Until the bed began to shift a bit. Dean didn't think anything of it at first; his eyes were closed and he just assumed that Paige was shifting her position to get more comfortable.

That wasn't what she was doing.

Carefully, in that slow, sensual way that was so Paige, she crawled over Dean's spent body, leaned down, and-

"Whoa, what the FUCK are you doing?!" Dean was yelling, and he didn't care.

Paige tried to keep the shock off of her face. She was smart enough to know that her only possible defense would be to keep her seductiveness at a high. "Oh come on Dean." Her voice was low, soft. "I know you can't keep up this no kissing rule forever."

"The hell I can't!" He yelled, pushing her aside and getting out of the bed. He angrily reaches for his pants and throws them on, trying to tell himself that hitting a girl will only land him in jail. Roman would be pissed if he had to bail him out again.

"I just don't get why you don't-"

"News flash, toots, you're not the only fuck who's whined about the goddamn rule. And guess what? You won't be the last, because I don't. Kiss. Anyone." His shirt was on now, and he was able to speak again before Paige was able to get another word in. "Now kindly get the fuck out of my house."

Paige frowns, not really knowing if she should be shocked at Dean's blunt rudeness. But nevertheless, she left, leaving Dean alone in the sweaty room. He blows out a frustrated sigh; he doesn't get why everyone wants to make such a big deal about the kissing thing. He knows for a fact that everyone knows about it, so why do they insist on pushing him on it?

Irritated and stressed, Dean heads into the kitchen and opens the fridge. An empty carton of milk and 4 unopened cases of beer. _Oh, good. _Dean thinks. _Mom went shopping._

…

"Roman, will you please raise your hand?" Mr. Heyman, Roman and John's homeroom teacher, says about 20 minutes into class. Roman turns away from John and does as he's told, but not without giving his teacher a confused look first. "Mr. Rollins, please take the open seat next to Mr. Reigns."

Roman watches as a boy about his age walks his way. He looks to be decently tall, and pretty built too. But that's not the first thing he notices about the boy. The first thing he notices is the bright blonde patch of hair on the right side of his head. It's rather intriguing to say the least.

"Hey." John speaks first, taking notice of the fact that the kid looks shy and nervous. "I'm John. Are you new here?"

The kid nods. "Seth. I just moved here from Iowa."

Roman whistles as he pulls out the seat next to him for Seth to sit in. "Why come to Ohio? Nothing really to see here."

The new student laughs and graciously takes the seat he's offered. "Long story short, my parents and I found some great opportunities for ourselves out here, so we decided to move."

"Really?" John asks, genuinely interested. "What are you looking for out here?"

"Well," He suddenly looks embarrassed. "There's this guy here named Hunter, and he runs a…" He pauses a moment, preparing himself for the ridicule he's gotten his whole life whenever this topic comes up. Whenever his biggest dream is brought up. "He runs a really small training facility for people who want to become professional wrestlers."

Seth waited and waited for the laughs or the snorts from the two, but they never came. Instead, John gasped.

"No way. Man, _I _train there!" He says, and Roman smiles proudly.

"He's been training there since our freshman year. He's wanted to be a wrestler all his life." The Samoan says, his eyes positively shining. He loved his boyfriend's passion for the sport, and the idea that he could now share that with someone was exciting for him.

Seth's eyes are bright as well, how lucky could he have gotten? "So I guess I'll see you there?"

John nods. "Every Friday night!"

…

"She tried to kiss me, man. She tried to fucking kiss me. I'm still so pissed." Dean says through gritted teeth as he watches Paige talk amongst her friends across the hall.

Roman rolls his eyes as he unlocks his locker. "Wasn't that like, 3 days ago? It's Wednesday man, let it go."

"Figures you'd take the bitch's side." Dean pouts. "I'm your best friend!"

"You got totally plastered after you made her leave, didn't you?" Roman asks, and Dean's grin gives him all the answer he needs. "Look, Dean, maybe you need to talk to someone about your weird rule. I mean, you haven't even told _me _why you have it, and that's got to mean something."

"Do you think I should drop my science class? I heard that you don't have to take it senior year if you don't want to. I think I'm gunna drop it."

Roman sighs, this is how this conversation always ended up going. Anytime it was brought up, Dean would break eye contact and ramble on about a completely different subject. And as much as he would act like he wasn't effected, Roman would always notice Dean's body slightly shaking. It hurt Roman, it really did. He wanted so desperately to be there for his friend, but how could he do that if he wouldn't open up to him? To _anybody?_

At that moment, John rounded the corner with Seth in tow. And when Dean laid eyes on the two-toned man, he nearly dropped his books. He turned to Roman, grabbing him by the collar and pulling him closer.

"What the-"

"Who. Is. _That?_" Dean asks. His mouth is practically salivating at this point. Roman yanks himself free and attempts to smooth his shirt out.

"His name's Seth Rollins. Just got in from Iow-"

"Don't care about backstory." Dean interrupts, watching as this boy- Seth- and John interact. Now, he's not certain, but he's pretty sure that this kid is the hottest piece of ass he ever did see, and he knew right in that moment that he had to get him in bed.

Roman saw that tell-tale look in his best friend's eyes and quickly shook his head. He stood in front of Dean to block his view from Seth. "Don't you even _think _about it Dean." Dean pouts, and Roman knows that he's going to complain, so he doesn't give him the chance. "He's a nice kid. A really nice kid. Not to mention he's shy and innocent; there's no way he'd fall for your shit."

Dean waves him off as he walks toward John and Seth. He catches the very end of their conversation, something about technique? He doesn't really care, because all that matters to him at that moment is to talk to _him._

"Morning, John." Dean says, feigning civility. John sees right through it, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms. Again, Dean could care less. "Who have we here?" He asks, motioning to Seth.

The addressed smile's politely and extends his hand. "Seth. I'm new here."

Dean takes his hand and _yeah, _he's gunna have to get this kid in bed. His hands are just so _big _and his hand shake is so _firm _and-

He'd better stop before he gets himself into some real trouble.

"Dean. I see you've allowed yourself to fall under Johnathan's wing. Let me tell you straight up that that's a bad idea. You see, Johnathan here-"

"Down, boy." Roman says, approaching the scene before it can get too messy. Roman knows how irritated John gets when Dean calls him Johnathan. Especially considering the fact that that's not even his name. "Seth, please don't listen to him. Dean and John have a very… Complicated friendship."

Dean snorts. "Friendship." He mocks.

It's Seth's turn to laugh now. "That's alright, John already warned me about Dean. He told me not to trust anything he tells me."

That definitely wasn't what Dean was expecting to hear. He slaps a laughing John in the arm. "What the hell?" He turns to Seth. "Whatever he told you isn't true. I'm a great guy, really."

Seth looks past Dean to Roman, who's standing right behind him shaking his head and mouthing 'no' over and over again. Again, Seth is gigging at the group's antics. Dean turns around in time to catch his best friend in the act. He groans in irritation and opts for leaving the 3 before his reputation is completely tarnished. If he wants to land Seth in bed, he's going to have to strategically maneuver around Roman and his stupid boyfriend.

**A/N: Tile from the song _Honest _by The Neighbourhood **


	4. Step Up

**Disclaimer: I do not own WWE or any of the characters mentioned.**

Chapter Three: You Step Up, I'll Step Up Too

It's been 3 weeks since Seth joined the group, and it's gone amazingly well. He fits right into the group's dynamic as if he'd been there the entire time. In his time with the boys at McMahon High, Seth learns that John's the responsible one, Roman's the sensitive one, and Dean, well, he's not completely sure what Dean is. The dirty blonde has a personality that, admittedly, Seth has never really seen before. He's clearly narcissistic, selfish, insensitive, a bit rude, and _very _crude but for some reason, Seth can't find any negativity in any of those attributes, because it's just who Dean is. You either accept it or you don't, and Seth quickly learned that it was easy to accept it. Maybe a bit too easy, but he wouldn't dwell on that.

He had been accompanying John to Hunter's training facility every Friday night and it had turned out to be a lot more fun than even he anticipated it to be. Maybe it was because he had someone to do it with, or maybe it was because he was doing something that he loved. Either way, he was having a blast.

Every now and then, Roman would invite him over to his house for a study or homework session. Most of the time John was there, but the two quickly found that they could have just as much fun with it being the two of them. They were amazingly comfortable with each other, and easily gained a sense of trust in the other. The two could talk for hours and hours, with it only feeling like minutes had gone by.

The only person Seth hadn't really spent much time with outside of school was Dean, and he wasn't completely sure why that was. He recalls John warning him about keeping his distance from the dirty blonde, but he can't remember John ever giving him a reason why. Dean doesn't seem like any sort of huge threat, so he doesn't really understand the potential danger. Still, he doesn't ever make the first move himself, he prefers to wait for Dean to invite him to do something, just like John and Roman had. How long it would take, he's not sure. He just hopes that it's soon, because he would love to develop a friendship with Dean as he has with the other two.

…

The four were sitting at their usual lunch table in the cafeteria during their lunch period. They were all going around with mindless chatter, until Seth brought up the coming Friday night.

"So, John, you ready for Friday? Hunter says he thinks we're all ready to start kicking up the intensity of our training a bit." He says, excitement clear in his voice.

John gives Seth a guilty look. "I'm not going to be able to make it, actually. I'm spending the weekend visiting my Grandma."

Seth chuckles, not minding at all that John won't be there. "That's cool. Well, Roman, what about you? Are you down to hang out this weekend?"

Roman's facial expression matches John's earlier one. "Can't, kid. I'm going with John to his Grandma's. She's like, my second mom."

"Well damn, who am I going to hang out with than?" Seth asks, only half-joking.

Dean drops his fork dramatically and points to himself, an offended look on his face. "Um, hello? Am I not a part of this adorable little group as well?" He asks sarcastically.

Seth ponders the idea in his mind; he _hasn't _hung out with Dean at all since he moved, and this seemed like a good a time as any to finally do so. So, without any hesitation, he nods. "Alright, let's do something this weekend, Dean. We haven't done anything together since I got here."

And just like that, Dean's whole demeanor perks up. This is it, this is his chance. He throws an arm over Seth's shoulders and pulls him in closer. "Ah, you see that, boys? Seth actually _wants _to hang out with me, unlike you two."

"Don't even do that, Dean. We hang out all the time."

Before Dean can respond, John steps in, looking worried. "Seth, you sure you want to spend your weekend with Dean? He's not very fun to be around, trust me." John tries to make it a joke, but he hopes that Seth will really consider his choice.

"Oh fuck you, John. You act like I'm going to lead the kid out to murder him. He's my friend too, okay? He can hang out with me if he wants to." Dean argues back, his jaw tightening. He's really sick of John, and Roman too, trying to keep Seth away from him.

"Whatever." John says, getting up from his seat at the table. "I'm going to class early. See you guys later." And with that, he leaves.

Seth looks around the table, clearly confused. "Seriously, guys, am I missing something here?"

Roman and Dean lock eyes for a few moments, and then Roman is getting up too. "No, John's just a bit stressed from all the homework he's been getting lately. I'm going to go check on him, alright?"

Once he leaves, the table is uncomfortably silent. Only Dean and Seth remains and it hits Seth that not only has he never hung out with Dean outside of school, but he's never been alone with him period. He finds himself not really knowing what to say, so he waits and hopes that Dean makes the first move.

Thankfully, he does.

"You don't have to hang out with me if you really don't fucking want to." He says, clearly discouraged.

And now, Seth feels bad. He doesn't understand what this unspoken worry over him hanging out with Dean is, but he feels bad for the dirty blonde. Evidently, it's making him feel like the odd one out, and Seth doesn't want that. So he smiles, and leans over a bit so that he forces Dean to look at him.

"Hey, did _I _ever say I didn't want to hang out with you?" When Dean doesn't say anything, he repeats himself. "Did I?"

Dean pouts a bit. "No."

"Exactly! So what are we going to do?" Seth asks, that bright smile never leaving his face. And for some reason, for some _damn _reason, sex isn't at all on Dean's mind. Right now, all he wants to do is prove to Seth Rollins that he's not the bad guy John makes him out to be. He wants to prove to Seth Rollins that he can be a friend too.

**A/N: Title from the song _Step Up _by Samantha Jade**


	5. Iris

**Disclaimer: I do not own WWE or any of the characters mentioned.**

Chapter Four: All I Can Taste Is This Moment

Dean looked at his watch: 4:27p.m. Good, he still had another half hour before Seth was supposed to be there. He finished up his romp with his newest lay, a senior named Tyson Kidd. They'd fucked pretty quickly, and Dean was able to have him in and out in under two hours. But now his room smelt like sex and his sheets definitely didn't hide that. For whatever reason, he didn't want Seth seeing his room in that condition. Why he suddenly felt worried, he didn't know, and he didn't care to look into it. He had half an hour to do it and he hoped that it would be enough time.

Roughly 30 minutes later, Dean scanned over his room and deemed it appropriate enough for him to bring Seth into it. He has to laugh at himself, because now that he thinks about it, this has got to be the first time in years he's ever bothered to clean his room. He's found things shoved in the corners of his room that he didn't even remember owning. Dean clenches his jaw when he notices a photo of himself and Roman as kids with a ring of condensation on it from a beer bottle. _How poetic, _he thinks. He'd dug up memories that he'd unknowingly buried under his new lifestyle.

Maybe cleaning his room wasn't such a great idea after all.

The doorbell rings 5 minutes later and he knows that it has to be Seth. The simple fact makes his palms sweat, and he's suddenly overcome with nervousness. He doesn't want Seth to think badly of him. He doesn't want John to win; doesn't want Seth to believe that John was right about him.

He quickly fetches his wallet from his back pocket and places the photo carefully inside, before heading out of his room.

"Hey!" Seth chirps when Dean answers the door. He steps back and allows the slightly shorter man to enter his home. He watches as Seth looks around, and he's not only shocked to see a void of shock and disgust, but he's a little bit confused. It's what he's used to when he brings new people into his home, and he knows that it's justifiable. His house is old and run down in the ghetto of Cincinnati. Not to mention, it's pretty filthy. Maybe if his mom was more worried about playing the role of housewife rather than fucking random guys for money and drugs, it would be better. And he sure as hell wasn't going to clean it. So filthy it remained.

"There was a really cute little kitten in your front yard. Is it yours?" Seth asks as Dean leads him to the back of the house where his room was located.

Dean eyes him with a curious look before letting out a hefty chuckle. "Do I look like I would own a fuckin' cat?" He laughs. Seth playfully punches his arm, and he only laughs harder.

"I wonder if he has an owner… He looked pretty scraggly." Seth comments, and the two find themselves falling into a semi-awkward silence. When Seth realizes that Dean's not going to say anything, he does. "So, what do you want to do?" He asks.

Dean gets off of his newly made bed and heads across the room to where his small TV is located. Above it is a PlayStation 1 console and 4 games. He grabs all of them and hands them over to Seth to look through.

"We could play some video games if you want? I can't afford a fancy ass gaming system so this is all I have." He awkwardly scratches at the back of his head as Seth shuffles through the games. "So, uhh, sorry about that."

As he looks through the games, Seth thinks about what Dean just said. He's slowly starting to notice this about Dean: He's starting to notice a defensiveness in him that Seth guesses to be a survival mechanism. Just like the day before at the lunch table.

_"You don't have to hang out with me if you really don't fucking want to." _

He figures that it's Dean's way of putting himself down before anyone else can do it for him.

But he'll focus on that later, because right now Seth just wants to spend a day with the dirty blonde. A care-free, worry-free day. He doesn't want him thinking that he needs to jump through any sort of hoop to show him a decent time; he wants to show Dean that he can be perfectly content playing video games. No matter how old they may be.

"Do you want to play this one?" He holds up a game called _Syphon Filter _and while he's never heard of it before, he can see from the cover that it's a shooting game and that's good enough for him.

Grabbing the games from Seth, Dean grins. "You're about to get your ass kicked. This game is my shit."

"I've never heard of it before. But if it's a shooting game, I'd say that I have a pretty good chance." Seth retorts, acting a bit more confident than he feels. Why? He doesn't really know. Maybe because it's Dean, and that's really the only way to keep up with him.

…

By the time the two finish their gaming session, their chests hurt from yelling and laughing. In the end they're not too sure who ended up winning the most rounds but they do know that they had a damn good time playing. As Dean goes to turn the system off, he realizes that not only did he clean his room for the first time in years, but it's the first time he's played his video games in probably just as long.

He wants to thank Seth. He really wants nothing more than to turn to him and tell him how great it really feels to be the kid he used to be again. Dean loves Roman to death; he would take a bullet for the guy, but it's somehow different with Seth. And he just wants to thank him. He wants to-

"Whoa." Seth suddenly says. Dean turns to see that Seth is looking at the screen of his phone. "Dean, do you know that we were playing for over 4 hours?"

Dean looks out the window and _holy shit, _it's extremely dark outside. How'd they lose track of time so quickly?

"Oh shit, I'm so sorry Seth. Are you going to get in trouble?"

He shakes his head. "No. It _is _the weekend, remember?"

"But you didn't even get to eat dinner or anything. Are you hungry?" He doesn't even give Seth a chance to answer before he's heading into the kitchen. Seth kind of _has _to laugh, because although he's known Dean for only a month, he's sure that this is totally out of character for him.

"Dean." He says, catching the dirty blonde's attention. "Stop worrying so much. I'm fine. I ate a lot before I came here, so I'm good."

Silence falls upon the two for a few moments, and they both really start to wonder if it'll always be like this.

"I should head home though. I have to be up early tomorrow for my Cross Fit session." Seth says finally as he makes his way back into Dean's room to fetch his stuff. Dean follows.

"Cross Fit? You actually do that shit?"

They're heading to the front door now, moving slowly. "Every Sunday morning. I've been doing it for years." He chuckles to himself. "Everyone says I'm obsessed."

Dean playfully rolls his eyes. "Wouldn't be surprised."

They end up at Seth's red '97 Mustang, and there's that silence again. But for some reason, this time it isn't uncomfortable. They're just kind of... _L__ooking _at each other. In those few moments of silence, Dean wonders why Seth is so different from anyone he's ever met. Why being around the kid just makes him feel different. It's almost scary in a way, but hey, Dean's always embraced danger.

"See you Monday?" Seth asks. Dean smiles and nods.

"See you Monday."

Once Seth's car was clear out of sight, Dean headed back into his house. But before he could make his way into the home, he heard a small sound behind him. Shortly after, he felt a small tapping at his foot. He had to laugh, knowing exactly what it was. That damn kitten.

**A/N: Title from the song _Iris _by Goo Goo Dolls (Though I was listening to the cover by Sleeping With Sirens specifically)**


	6. A Little Death

**Disclaimer: I do not own WWE or any of the characters mentioned.**

Chapter Five: Make Me Feel Like I Am Breathing

Come Monday morning, Dean's pretty shocked when he realizes that he's searching for Seth. Usually, his first thought is to find Roman, but now, he wants to see Seth. He wants to invite him over again. He wants to spend more time with him. It's funny, because he feels different around Seth than when he's around his best friend. Seth makes him laugh more, makes him smile more. Makes him want to have fun again.

He decides that it's because Seth has this childlike innocence about him that he's never seen in anyone his age. He knows that Seth is the youngest of the group, being as he skipped a grade and all, but it's not even that. It's just… _Seth. _

"There you are!"

Dean hears Seth's voice to his left, and he's smiling already. "You were looking for me?" He jokes.

Seth rolls his eyes in a playful manner. "Of course. But honestly, I really just wanted to tell you that I had a lot of fun this weekend. More fun than I've had in a long time."

At that, Dean can't help but furrow his eyebrows a bit. He wasn't really expecting that. "Really?" He can't help but ask.

The younger looks at him with slight confusion, as if he doesn't know why he would even question the fact. "Yeah, I really did. You sound surprised?"

He shrugs. "I guess I kind of am. I'm not very… sociable."

Seth admits to himself that he's not 100% sure what Dean could be implying by saying that, so he drops it altogether. "Well, like I said, I had a lot of fun. We should really hang out more often!" The cheerfulness has now returned to his voice. "I really don't get why John was so worried about me hanging out with you."

As if he was queued by the comment, John appears from seemingly nowhere, fingers tightly laced with Roman's.

"Hey guys." He says. "What's up? How was your weekend?"

He gives Dean a look, but Dean can appreciate the fact that it's not as judgy as it usually is. Dean does have to admit that John's very good at giving people chances.

"We had so much fun! We played video games for hours. Totally lost track of time." Seth beams.

John looks both pleasantly surprised and skeptical. "That's all you did?"

Seth isn't fazed by the implication. Didn't even catch it in the first place. "Yeah, it was really fun." He says again.

"You got Dean to bust out the old PlayStation? Damn, not even I've seen that thing in years." Roman says. Dean looks proudly at John.

"See? I didn't kill your boy or anything. We got along really well, didn't we, Rollins?" He puts his arm around Seth's shoulder, and he notices for the first time how close in height they are. He's always been the smallest of his friends, but now Seth is there to balance that out.

Seth brings his arm up to mimic Dean's gesture. "We did, Ambrose."

…

When school gets out, Seth, John, and Roman meet in the parking lot at John's car. They had all made plans to go to see the newest action movie. It had originally been planned as a date for John and Roman, but they decided at the very last moment to invite the other two boys. Seth happily agreed, and Dean only did because Seth did.

"Where the hell is he?" John asks. School had gotten out about 15 minutes earlier, and Dean is still nowhere to be found. They had all tried calling and texting him, but no reply.

"Maybe he got detention." Roman suggests, opening the door to John's white Dodge Charger and taking a seat, his legs still resting on the ground of the parking lot. "He's about overdue for getting into trouble."

Seth laughs and even though he knows the answer to his next question, he asks it anyways. "Does he get in trouble a lot?"

It's not John's turn to laugh. "Oh, that's an understatement. Dean getting in trouble is a pretty regular occurrence. He just hasn't gotten into any "big" trouble lately."

Seth chuckles in reply, and the waiting game goes on. After a few moments of silence go by, John decides to strike up a rather important (by his standards) conversation with the newest member of the group.

"So Seth, what _do _you think of Dean?"

"Oh no…" Roman mumbles, earning an elbow to the arm from his boyfriend.

Seth looks slightly caught off guard by the question. "What do I think of Dean?" He repeats. John nods. "What do you mean?"

John looks to Roman as if to silently ask for help, but Roman pretends to take interest in his nails. He knows in that moment that he's on his own, but he does hope that Roman won't be mad at him for bringing his best friend up like this.

"Like, what is your perception of him?"

The younger takes a moment to think. To be completely honest, he doesn't really understand what John is asking, and he really doesn't know why. He doesn't know why John seems to have these reservations about the dirty blonde. He's been constantly dropping hints to Seth that give him the idea that John doesn't want him having anything to do with Dean, and he really doesn't see why. As far as he knows, Dean hasn't given Seth any reason to be cautious of him.

"I really like him. He's really funny. Like, hilarious. And he seems like a great friend; very loyal and protective, you know?"

John has to nod because John has to admit that those things are true. As much as he doesn't like the guy, anyone could appreciate how funny he was. If the joke wasn't directed towards you, he could have you laughing in mere seconds. And he really _was _a good friend. A damn good friend. He sees the way he is with Roman, and John really respects that. One of the reasons that John and Roman never fight is because they both worry how Dean will react if he finds out that John had upset Roman.

It happened once. Never really happened again.

"True." John decides to take a different route with it. "Does he ever tell you about what he… What he likes to do for fun?"

"Uhhh…" Again, Seth is left utterly confused. "Not really."

John nods. "Well-"

"John, _stop it._" Roman hisses. He knows how Dean can be. He _knows _it, but he doesn't think it's fair for John to take Dean away from Seth before he even has the chance to do anything wrong. From what he can see, Dean and Seth have been getting along just fine, and he doesn't want John to ruin it.

Seth looks back and forth between the couple, who are now sending each other tense looks. _What is going on? _He thinks.

"Guys, what-" Before he continue, his phone vibrates in his back pocket. They both watch as he retrieves his phone and reads the message:

**_Hey, I decided that I don't wanna go see a fucking movie. Movies are boring. Wanna ditch Cinderella and Prince Charming and do something else?_**

Seth accidentally laughs out loud, which draws the couple's curiosity.

"Who's that? Is it Dean?" Roman asks.

Seth looks up and shakes his head as casually as he can. He shoves his phone into his pocket and starts to back away from the pair. "No, it was, uh, my mom. Wants me home. Sorry guys!" And now he's running to his car.

John and Roman look at each other, a bit baffled by the sudden turn of events.

"Um, alright?"

Once Seth makes it to his car, he locks himself inside and puts on his seatbelt. After carefully making sure that he hadn't been followed by Roman or John, he retrieves his phone once more and sends Dean a text:

**_What's the plan, captain? _**

…

"A little more to the left. A little more… Yeah! Right there!"

Not even 20 minutes after ditching Roman and John, Seth finds himself in a bar across town. He'd been a little hesitant when he first arrived, but seeing as Dean was a regular and all of the workers knew him, he didn't feels as nervous. They all treated Dean as a sort of pseudo son, and just because he was with Dean, they treated him the same. It was all smiles and hugs from the moment the two walked in.

It was an interestingly comfortable atmosphere, Seth realized. The place was dimly lit with televisions practically everywhere, each playing a different sport. Football, soccer, hockey, even horse racing could be found on any TV around the bar. But all you could _really _hear was talking and laughing. The drinking seemed casual and fit into the conversing of the people; nothing like the obnoxious drinking habits seen in movies. It was a cozy little place.

Dean had dragged Seth to a pool table as soon as he had seen one vacated, and currently, Dean is trying to show Seth the tricks of the trade. All the right angles of which to shoot. After giving his direction, Seth makes the shot and lands the ball.

"Holy shit, you're a natural!" Dean yells over the other voices in the bar. Seth laughs and jumps up and down a few times.

"I can't believe I just did that!" He skips over to the pocket he just shot the ball into and laughs again. He looks up at Dean as he points to it. "I just fucking made that!"

Dean walks over to Seth and pats his shoulder while smiling a proud, yet cocky smile. "Just don't forget who taught you how to shoot when you become a big shot pool player."

Seth shakes his head and playfully shoves Dean away. "Oh stop, did you see how smoothly that landed in the hole? Clearly, you can't teach that."

The dirty blonde rolls his eyes. "Clearly." He laughs.

"This is so much fun." Seth says as he lines up another shot. He misses this time, but he doesn't care. Frankly, he could care less if he never made a shot the entire game. He's pretty sure that he could sit in an empty room with Dean and have just as much of a blast. "Thank you."

Dean glances up from the shot that he's lining up to give Seth a questioning look. "What the hell are you thanking _me _for?" He's pretty sure that no one's ever thanked him for anything.

Seth shrugs, and waits for Dean to take his shot to answer. "Everything, I guess. For taking me in as a friend. For making me feel like I've been your friend for years. For making me feel, I don't know… Happy."

Dean's face flushes. _Happy? _He's never made anyone happy. No, he couldn't have heard right. Dean Ambrose is the most selfish person that Dean Ambrose knows, he didn't… He couldn't have…

"I'm sorry, is that weird? That's weird, isn't it? I'm sorry…" Seth says, and now both men are standing with completely red faces.

"No, it's not… It's just, I'm…" Dean scratches awkwardly at the back of his head. "I'm not used to hearing shit like that, you know?"

Dean suddenly feels like his throat is closing up. His stomach is churning and he feels like he _can't fucking breathe. _This is all too new to him. No one has ever seemed to damn happy to be in his presence and he didn't know how to handle it.

He was trash. He was worthless. He was discourteous, malevolent, egotistical; he'd heard it all his entire life. And now, here comes Seth, basically fawning over how great a friend he'd been to him. It didn't make sense.

"I, uh… I have to go." Dean practically squeaks out before quickly moving around the pool table and out the door.

Seth watches as it happens, a horrible feeling mixing around in his stomach. His stupid mouth had always gotten him in trouble. He had always had this willingness in him to say whatever came to mind, and he'd gotten himself into a lot of awkward situations because of it. But this… This somehow felt like the worst. Did he just lose someone who was beginning to mean so much to him?

**A/N: Title from the song _A Little Death _by The Neighbourhood**


	7. Next To You

Chapter Six: You Got That Smile That Only Heaven Can Make

When the movie ended, John and Roman went back to John's house. After greeting John's family and brothers, the duo head to John's room. Once the door is closed and locked, they lay themselves in standard position on John's bed: John sitting up against the headboard and Roman's head in his lap. John runs his long fingers through Roman's jet black hair. It was in a bun today, but John's already pulled the elastic from the locks. He's always liked Roman's hair down.

"Love you." John says softly. And dammit, if it still doesn't make Roman's stomach flip every time he hears it. "You know what I really love about you?" Roman looks up at him, awaiting the answer. "I love that even after us being together for 4 years, you still blush every single time I tell you that I love you."

That only makes Roman blush more. "It's because even after 4 years, you still make me feel like I did when you first kissed me."

John can't help but lean down and kiss his boyfriend. He pecks his lips twice for good measure. "Still feels like the first time to me."

Roman smiles brightly. But after a few seconds, he's laughing. "Jesus John, you make me feel like a girl."

"Well, you _are _the girl in this- _ow!_"

"I hate it when you say that!" Roman laughs.

They sit in silence for a few moments, just sort of enjoying being in one another's presence. In one another's embrace. It's the most comforting and beautiful place they could ever be. But after a while, Roman speaks.

"John?"

He hums a light reply. "Hmm?"

"Why are you so worried about what happens with Dean and Seth? I mean, I know that you and Dean don't get along and I know that you hate what he does, but you really seem adamant about Seth having nothing to do with Dean."

It takes a few moments for John to really think about the question Roman is asking him. He's based it on instinct up until this point; based it on the fact that Seth was far too immature to really understand the consequences of getting too close to Dean. But was that it? Or was there more to the story?

"Don't you just kind of feel the need to, you know, protect the kid?" He says at last. His fingers pause in Roman's dark hair as he tries to piece together his thoughts. "He's so innocent, Roman. He's only 17."

"That's not really that young. We're both 18."

"Yeah, and Dean's 19. Seth's a _kid, _and it would kill me if Dean took advantage of him and I just stood by and let it happen."

Roman has to sit up now because he knows what's going on. A huge smile is plastered on the Samoan's face because he _knows. _

"Seth's your new Daniel."

Daniel Bryan was John's best friend. They'd known each other for only a few years, but they'd clicked the day that they met. They had a friendship like Roman had never seen before, even surpassing that of his own friendship with Dean. Daniel would do _anything _for John, and Roman knew that, but man, John would have died for Daniel. Daniel Bryan meant everything in the world to John. Roman always knew that it was because Daniel was smaller than the three of them, and John felt this intense need to protect and watch over him.

Like Seth, Daniel Bryan was also very passionate about wrestling and attended classes with John on Fridays. Daniel had moved from Washington State to Ohio to live with his grandmother so that he could attend Hunter Helmsley's training program _NXT. _For the 3 years that Daniel lived in Ohio, he was at the top of _NXT_. A fan favorite. A constant title holder. Until Daniel suffered a rather serious neck injury and was immediately taken out of his grandmother's care and sent back to live with his parents in Washington.

John was devastated. Devastated to the point where it was hard to get him to even speak. Roman feared that John would never recover from the most important platonic relationship he had ever had. It was almost as if Daniel gave John a sort of purpose in life. Anyone could see that John was a natural born leader and protector, and Daniel gave him the opportunity to use those assets. So when Daniel left, John was left empty.

That is, until now. At least, that's what Roman sees.

John frowns and gets out of the bed. No one's mentioned Daniel's name since he left sophomore year. He leans his body against the door of his room and sighs. "No he's not."

"Yes, baby, he is. You know he is. He looks up to you the same way that Daniel used to look up to you. You jump at any minor threat to Seth, just like you used to do with Daniel. You guys get along, you click, you have everything in common, just like you and-"

"Okay okay I get it Roman!" John yells, a little more than upset by Roman's theory.

Can John even consider it a "theory" when he knows that he is absolutely right?

"You're right, okay? You're right." He makes his way back to the bed and this time, it's Roman who takes John into his lap and runs his fingers gently through his blonde hair. John sighs once more, trying to get himself together. "Daniel was my best friend, Roman. He made me feel like I was larger than life. Like I was everything to him."

Roman smiles a small smile, and kisses John's forehead. "You _were _everything to him, John. He loved you. Still does."

"I know. It's just hard not having him here anymore, you know? And I just… I…"

John doesn't even need to finish his sentence, because Roman knows exactly what he wants to say. They've had this conversation too many times, although Roman wishes that they didn't have to.

"Baby boy, what have I told you? It's _not _your fault that he got injured."

"I told him that I'd protect him, and I didn't. I made him that one promise and I failed him." John looks up at Roman, and he sees the objection in his boyfriend's eyes. But he knows that Roman won't argue, not now. Roman knows that John needs this time to get it all out, and to explain himself. "I don't want the same thing to happen twice. I really like Seth, man. I really do. We get along so well, and I already feel so damn protective over him. I don't want anything happening to him. And it's really nothing against Ambrose, it's just that he happens to be the biggest threat to Seth right now."

Roman nods in complete understanding. "I get it. And I admire that about you, John. You have the biggest fucking heart, and you don't even know it. You're incredibly selfless." Another kiss to the forehead. "I love you."

A kiss to the lips. And another. And another. "I love you too."

…

Tuesday morning, Roman is surprised to turn the corner and see Seth at his locker. The teen's eyes are glued to his phone and there's a worried frown plastered on his face. When he approaches, he decides to play it off.

"Waiting for me? How sweet." Roman says, leaning against the lockers and facing Seth. Seth forces out a laugh, but doesn't immediately look away from his phone. Now, Roman's frowning as well. "Everything alright?"

Seth finally looks up. "Everything's… Have you seen Dean?"

Roman chuckles. "Oh Dean? Don't worry about him, he's always late to school-"

"No, I mean… Have you seen or heard from him since yesterday?" Seth's eyes are frantically scanning the hall at this point. He'd been trying to get ahold of the dirty blonde since the incident at the bar, but to no avail. It was really starting to bother him; he didn't want to lose Dean. Not when they were just beginning to get so close.

"Why?" Roman asks. "Seth, did something happen between you two?"

Seth's eyes go back to Roman and yeah, he can tell that something happened between them.

"We hung out yesterday, and I don't know what happened Roman! We were having so much fun and we were talking and laughing and playing pool, and I don't know, maybe I said something and he freaked out and he ran off and I haven't heard from him since!"

Roman sort of has to laugh, because Seth's face is beginning to turn red. He puts his hands on Seth's shoulders in an attempt to calm him. "Breathe, kid. It's fine. Dean's weird, alright? He gets weird over dumb shit, but he'll get over it."

"You sure?" Seth's voice is small and fragile, and it gives Roman a glimpse at what John's been getting at this entire time. He's just so innocent and delicate. Roman smiles.

"Positive. I've been dealing with Ambrose my entire life. I know him better than anybody."

…

Roman and John are talking at their lunch table when a tray is haphazardly thrown onto it. They both look up in surprise. It's Dean.

"What the hell Dean, where have you been?" Roman asks. Dean casually sits across from the couple and begins tearing into his chicken sandwich.

"What'dya mean?" Dean's reply is muffled from his mouth being full. Bread and chicken bits fly from his mouth and land on the table, and John rolls his eyes at Dean's lack of couth.

"You know what I mean. Seth's been looking for you all day."

Dean doesn't look up from his sandwich. "Looking for me?"

Now Roman rolls his eyes. "Yes, you. He's all freaked out about something weird happening between you guys when you hung out yesterday?"

John chokes on the chocolate milk he had been drinking. After coughing a bit, he points an accusing finger at Dean. "I knew you two ditched us!"

"What group of guys goes and sees a movie together anyways?"

"Don't you two start." Roman growls. Both men return their attention to their respective trays. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, but Seth's gunna be all over you when he sees that you finally showed u-"

"Dean!"

Dean's breath hitches at the sound of Seth's voice. He knew that he wouldn't have been able to ignore the kid all day, but he somehow held onto the hope that he wouldn't have to deal with him. At least not today.

"Dean, hey." Seth's out of breath by the time he reaches the table. Dean tries to act as casual as possible when he turns and looks up at him.

"Hey, kid. What's up?"

Seth glances over at Roman and John before sitting down beside Dean. "Are you mad at me?"

"Mad at you?" He repeats. Seth nods. "Uhh, no?"

"You don't sound sure."

"Why on earth would I be mad at you?"

Seth sighs, clearly frustrated. "Why'd you run out on me yesterday?" He asks. "Oh, and by the way, you left _me _with the tab, and I didn't even drink anything."

Instead of giving an answer, Dean just laughs. He doesn't know why, but he does. He punches Dean in the arm to regain his attention.

"Stop laughing! I'm being serious."

"Wanna come over after school?"

Seth's slightly taken aback at the question. He furrows his eyebrows.

"What?"

Dean grins that little half grin that Seth's beginning to know him for. "Yeah. I need help with my math homework." He takes another bite from his sandwich. "Got a test coming up, you know? Derivatives."

Seth's look of confusion only intensifies as he looks over to John. The blonde shrugs in reply, admittedly just as lost as Seth.

"Okay?"

"Great!" The bell rings and Dean collects his trash and stands up. "See you then, Rollins."

The table is silent for a full minute before Roman starts laughing.

"Fucking Dean."

…

Seth knocks on the door of Dean's house and waits. He's still confused about everything that's gone on with him in the past 48 hours. He's been acting erratic, even for Dean Ambrose; Seth can tell that much. He wants answers, and Seth tells himself that _that's _why he's here.

"You made it! Come on in."

As he walks in, Seth notes that Dean's acting far more chipper than he's ever seen him. He follows Dean into his room and sits on his bed once he's there. He looks around the room as Dean closes the door. Doesn't notice when he locks it.

"So, you realize that I'm no better at math than you, right? I'm a wrestler, not a scholar."

Dean lays on the bed next to where Seth is sitting and looks up at him. He's got this look on his face that Seth hasn't seen from him yet. It's cocky and… He can't really put his finger on what else. But it's different. He knows that much.

"Right. Then what do you wanna do?"

Seth looks around the room, not knowing what to say. "I don't know. We could…" His voice trails off as his eyes spot something in the corner of Dean's room. He points to it. "What's all that?"

What Seth points at is pair of blue bowls, one filled with milk and one filled with dry cereal. Dean's face flushes the second he realizes what Seth's talking about. He completely forgot.

"That's for Moxley."

The younger teen looks down at Dean. "Moxley?" He repeats, and Dean sighs.

"Guess I couldn't keep the secret like I wanted to. Moxley!" He calls. Seth hears a low meow, followed by the jingle of a bell. Suddenly, a small, black and white kitten appears from under the bed. Seth gasps, a smile on his face.

"That's the kitten! The kitten I saw last week!" Seth exclaims. Dean can't help but laugh at how excited he is. "I thought you said it wasn't yours?"

Dean's laughing fades away, and is replaced by more blushing. "He's not. Well… He _wasn't. _But, you know… You thought he was so cute and shit. And I knew that you felt bad that he was all by himself. So… You know…"

"Wait a second." Seth's on his knees now, hovering over Dean. He's only inches away from his face, and Dean can feel himself sweating. "Are you telling me, Dean Ambrose, that you kept this kitten because of me? Because you knew that I wouldn't have wanted it homeless?"

The dirty blonde sits up and scratches at the back of his neck. That's another thing that Seth's beginning to notice about Dean; his nervous scratches. He smiles, because he knows that Dean is embarrassed. The fact that Dean kept the kitten and was never going to tell Seth meant that he wanted to do something nice for him, but didn't want to be cause doing it.

"Dean," his smile grows when Dean refuses to look at him. "that's the sweetest thing anyone's ever done for me, you know that?"

"Yeah, well, I mean, it's really not that big of a fucking deal, Seth." He says nervously. But before he can come up with something more to say, Seth's pulling him into a hug. And if the previous night at the bar freaked him out, this was enough to send him into cardiac arrest. The feeling of being so intimately touched in a non-erratic way was something of an anomaly to him.

But for the hug to come from Seth, it was something else entirely. He was just so soft, and quite frankly, it pissed Dean off. Guys weren't supposed to be that soft. He wasn't supposed to enjoy feeling Seth's silk skin against his own. He wasn't supposed to feel drunk off of his intoxicating scent. He wasn't supposed to grip him tighter, pull him closer.

He wasn't supposed to feel disappointed when Seth let him go.

"Moxley! Come here Moxley!" Seth calls to the kitten. He jumps onto Seth's lap and purrs softly, rubbing his body against the hand that Seth offers. Seth smiles as he admires his fur coat: he's solid black with white around his nose, ears, and on his paws. It was sort of a funny juxtaposition, Seth noticed. This kitten was so soft and gentle, while Dean was hard and rough around the edges. He isn't too sure how Dean's going to get along with Moxley, but he sure as hell is excited to find out.

"He likes you." Dean points out. But is he really shocked? Everyone who meets Seth seems to fall in love with him. He has this infectious personality: always smiling and laughing. Always so kind and caring.

"He's so cute!" Seth giggles, picking Moxley up and kissing his nose. Dean can't help but smile. The picture before him, it's… It's adorable.

"Well damn, if I would have known you'd be this happy about him, I would have told you the day I took him in."

"What day _did _you take him in?"

_Oops. _Dean really shouldn't have said that, because now he has to reveal _another _thing that he wasn't ready to tell Seth about. Again, his nails find their way to the back of his head.

"Uhh… Last Saturday…" He mumbles, hoping that maybe Seth won't hear him. Maybe Seth will just drop it all together. But the look on Seth's face tells Dean that he had no such luck.

"That's the day I came over. The day I… You took him in that same day?" Rather than wait for a reply, Seth touches his nose to Moxley's and whispers, "He loves you already."

Dean rolls his eyes. "I don't love him."

Seth covers the kitten's ears with a look of mock disgust directed towards Dean. "Don't let him hear you say that!"

Dean shakes his head with a grin. "You're dumb, kid."

"Actually," Seth says, getting up from his spot on the bed. Moxley jumps from his lap and onto the floor beside him. "you're the dumb one here, mister. You _do _know that you can't _actually _give cats milk, right? That's only on tv." Seth glances over at the two bowls again. "And feeding him cereal? Really?"

"Well how the fuck am I supposed to know how to take care of a cat? I don't know anything about cats."

Seth extends his hand out to Dean as an offer to help him up off of the bed. Dean looks at his hand hesitantly for a few moments before accepting it, trying to make the contact last as little as possible. He can't handle touching Seth any more than he has to. Not after what that hug did to him.

"It's a good thing I know a thing or two about cats. Come on, let's go to the store."

Dean shakes his head. "Can't. Don't have any money on me."

Seth grabs Dean's wrist and pulls him out of the room, Moxley happily trotting along behind. "Hey, I practically convinced you into taking him in. We're in this together, right?"

Dean blushes, but he smiles. "Right."

**A/N: Title from the song ****_Next To You _****by Chris Brown ft. Justin Bieber **

**Oh, and I also have to give props to a story I read once (don't remember the name of it) that featured Dean with a cat named Moxley. Think she was a girl though. But anyways, thanks to that story for inspiring this story's Moxley!**


	8. Black & Blue

**Disclaimer: I do not own WWE or any of the characters mentioned.**

Chapter Seven: I Won't Waste Your Time With My Revelations

Days and weeks go by, and Dean is starting to notice a definite pattern in his life. Ever since Seth Rollins came along, he's noticing that most of his time is spent with him. They meet up at Dean's locker every morning, walk each other to class, sit next to each other for lunch, and they've even began carpooling. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, Seth would pick Dean up, and every Tuesday and Thursday would be Dean's turn.

Dean also begins to realize that Seth is at his house a whole lot more than he ever expected. Yeah, he's been to Seth's house and yeah, Seth's house is thousands of times nicer than Dean's. But somehow, he always finds Seth spending most of his time at his house. Maybe it's because that's where it all really began. Maybe because of Moxley. Whatever it was, Dean didn't really care.

But there was something in particular that Dean was beginning to notice. Something that, surprisingly, took him much longer to realize than everything else.

He wasn't fucking anyone.

Well, yeah he was. He was definitely still fucking people, but not nearly as often as he used to. The desire was still there; _oh _was it still there, so Dean was left to wonder why it was that his rendezvous were rapidly decreasing in frequency. Maybe he'd gone through everyone? Maybe his reputation was catching up to him?

"Maybe you should stop asking yourself stupid ass questions that you already know the answer to." Dean says to himself. He's sitting on the bench in the car garage that he worked at taking his lunch break. It really couldn't have come sooner, because his mind had been going a million miles a minute all day. Questions that he refused to acknowledge before were coming back to bite him, and it was torture.

It was Seth. He wasn't dumb, he knew that. It was Seth fucking Rollins that was the cause of all this. It was his fault Dean didn't have time to hook up anymore. He took up all of Dean's time.

_You want him to take up all of your time._

It was his fault that Dean wasn't picking up anyone anymore. He distracted him from his possible lays.

_You want him to distract you._

It was his fault that Dean was so fucking confused.

_You fucking love it._

"Fuck fuck fuck." Dean chants under his breath, running the rag he keeps in his back pocket over his face. Nothing like this has ever happened to him before. No one has ever been able to get inside of his head like Seth seemed to do. But does he even know? Does Seth even realize what a mess he's made of Dean Ambrose?

"Are you acting like you can't see me, or can you really not see me?"

Dean looks up and sees John standing right in front of him. Dean sighs as he shuts his eyes again. Tighter this time.

"John, fuck, I forgot you had an appointment today."

John laughs and sits beside Dean. "You okay? You seem-"

"Don't patronize me, John. I'm not in the mood."

In no mood to argue, John nods and stands up. But just as he's about to walk away from Dean's bench, Dean calls out to him.

"No, wait. Fuck, I'm sorry. Just… I'm kind of messed up right now."

John smiles and sits back down. He's pleasantly surprised at the fact that he is about to have a real, legitimate conversation with Dean. He makes sure to get comfortable on that metal bench, because he feels like they could be there for a while.

"Messed up, huh?" John asks, and Dean nods. "Does it have to do with… A specific person?"

Dean nods, not catching the heavy implication John makes. "I think so. He's changing everything, man. Everything I thought I knew about myself."

"But you've always been so sure about things when it came to, you know, someone you were interested in."

"It's different though, I think. When I'm with this person, that's not what I think about. That's the _last _thing I think about." He looks over at John. "But that's the thing." He lets out a bitter chuckle. "That's who I am, John. Mr. Hit It and Quit It. Mr. One Night Stand. Why don't I want that with him? Why can't I let myself do that?"

John moves to put a comforting hand on Dean's shoulder, but when the dirty blonde noticeably tenses, he puts his hand back down. "Listen to me, Dean. Those titles you just mentioned, you gave them to yourself. You made them up; they don't define you." Dean remains quiet, so John goes on. "You have it in your head that all you're good for is a quick fuck. That you're only capable of giving yourself to someone temporarily. You don't want to believe that love is out there for you."

Dean's head shoots back up, and he's looking at John with the most terrified eyes he thinks he has ever seen. "_I don't love him_." He grits out. John puts his hands up in defense.

"I didn't say you did. I said you don't believe that you _could _love him. That you could love anyone, for that matter. Look, I don't know who this guy is," John has to lie, because he knows that Dean would freak out if he knew that John knew the truth. This is a delicate situation, and Dean was very vulnerable. John has to be careful. "but if he's enough to make you stop and think, maybe it's worth giving some sort of chance."

They sit in silence, Dean letting the words soak in and John waiting for Dean to say something. He feels proud of not only himself, but Dean as well. As horrible as it may seem, John was nearly convinced that nothing would ever change Dean. He was doubtful that he would ever change his ways. But now, there seemed to be hope. And that actually makes John smile.

"Stop fuckin' smiling like that." Dean says, standing up. "We're still not friends." He says, but he's smiling. He's smiling, and that little bit of hope in John grows.

He stands up as well. "Will you just go fix my air conditioning so that I don't have to spend another minute with you?"

"Gladly."

**A/N: Title from the song ****_Black & Blue _****by Miike Snow**

**Kind of a lame filler chapter but I've kind of had writers block, so sorry about that guys :(**


	9. Crave You

Chapter Eight: It's True, I Crave You

The knock at Seth's window does more than scare the shit out of him. He drops the calculator he was holding and scurries under his bed because hey, it's 2:30am on a Saturday night, how else are you supposed to react?

He wracks his brain, trying to think of what he should do. He's mildly confident in his ability to fight off the person if they're unarmed, but what if they have a knife? Or a _gun? _

He pulls his phone out of his pocket after a few minutes, ready to call 911, when his screen starts flashing Dean's name. Seth answers it before it can ring twice.

"Dean, thank god, there's someone at my window trying to break into my room. What do I do? I'm so sc-"

"What? Seth, it's me. Let me in."

Seth furrows his eyebrows and looks towards his window. "What?"

"Let me in you fucking dick, its cold out here!"

Seth gets out from under his bed and hesitantly heads to the window. He pulls back the curtains and, by god, it _is _Dean. Seth lets out a relieved sigh and hangs up his phone, opening the window.

"Jesus, Dean, you scared the shit out of me!"

Dean jumps into the room with a smug grin on his face. "Never heard you cuss before, kid."

Seth rolls his eyes as he closes his window and goes to sit at his desk once more. He shuts his math book and puts his previously dropped calculator away, because he knows he's not getting anything else done with Dean there.

He watches as Dean casually goes to lay on Seth's bed, and in a way, it warms Seth's heart. There was something endearing about the way Dean treated Seth's home like his own. The way Dean treated Seth like they'd known each other for years. He's always wanted that with someone, and now it appeared that he had it.

"So what are you doing here again?" Seth asks. Dean grunts, staring up at the ceiling.

"My fucking mom, man. She pisses me off."

"What happened?"

Dean sighs, shaking his head. "I haven't seen here in 3 days, right? And she comes home about an hour ago all fucking loud with some guy. Doesn't even care to tell me where she's been, or tell me who the dude is. And then they start fucking in the kitchen. Can you believe that?"

Seth shakes his head because no, he can't believe that. He can't possibly imagine what it's like to live like Dean lives. No dad, no siblings, basically no mom. From what Seth understands, Dean's had to raise himself his entire life. He never got to have a childhood, a real family, _love._ It's so unfair, and it breaks Seth's heart.

"I'm so sorry Dean." It's all he can really say. What _can _you saw to someone whose life is _that _fucked up?

But of course, Dean tries to act like he doesn't care with a wave of the hand, but Seth can see it. He can see the pain on the dirty blonde's face, even in the darkness of the room. He can feel Dean's anger and sadness. And he can't stand it.

He just wants Dean to feel some kind of closeness; something that his life has been tragically lacking. He wants Dean to know that he is entirely there for him, and that he would do anything for him at this point. He's come to mean so much to Seth, and he needs to be that for Dean. So he slowly gets up and gets into the bed beside him.

Dean gives him a questioning look, but Seth doesn't say anything. Just pulls the blanket over the two of them and rests his head on Dean's strong chest.

"I promise that you'll always have me, Dean. I promise."

Dean feels like time has slowed down. Like nothing is real. He almost feels high; the feeling of another body touching his own so intimately, and yet so innocently takes Dean's breath away. And the fact that it's _Seth's _body? He feels like he's on fire.

The moment that he shares with Seth somehow feels more passionate than any sexual encounter he's ever had, and maybe that's just because there's simply so much more to it. He's given a chance to let his senses run wild: Seth's soft skin, Seth's light breathing, Seth's gentle features, Seth's scent. Oh _god, _Seth's scent. Dean's sure that he could get drunk off of it. It's intoxicating in such a way that forces Dean to shut his eyes in some sort of attempt at self-control, because if he's not careful…

The only sense that's missing is taste. Good god, Dean has never wanted to taste anything so badly. He needs only to angle his head forward a few inches for his lips to meet the side of Seth's neck. He's never felt a temptation so strong before in his entire life, and on pure instinct and impulse alone, his head is moving forward.

Closer, closer, so close…

But he stops himself. What is he doing? By now, Seth's fallen asleep, and Dean's heart is pounding.

He blinks a few times, shocked at how close he was to making a huge mistake. Because Dean knows damn well that as soon as he lets himself indulge in Seth Rollins, there will be absolutely no going back.

…

It's nearly 8 hours later when Seth finally wakes up, and when he does, he's kind of stunned to feel Dean's arms wrapped around his body. Knowing the dirty blonde, Seth would have thought that Dean would have found a way out of his grasp the second Seth fell asleep. Clearly, that wasn't the case.

"Dean?"

"Hmm?" Came the sleepy reply.

But now, Seth doesn't really know what to say. He's never… waken up with someone before. "Uhh… Good morning."

Dean's eyes flutter open and he takes in his surroundings for a few moments. It's when he realizes the position he and Seth are in that he quickly releases his hold and sits up, forcing Seth to reposition as well.

"Yeah, uhh… Morning." He mumbles, scratching at the back of his neck. Images from the night before are flooding his mind, knocking the wind out of him once more, and looking at Seth is making it so much worse. He's not used to such an overflow of emotion.

He's not sure anyone is.

"Are you okay?" Seth asks. "You seem-"

"'M fine." Dean says quickly. He's really trying to look anywhere but at Seth, but it's a little hard when the sunlight from the window is making that stupid little blonde patch shine. "Why do you have that blonde in your hair?" He asks, trying to direct the conversation away from himself.

Thankfully it works, and Seth is laughing as he tugs at the patch of hair. "It's actually kind of embarrassing. Freshman year, I really wanted blonde hair for some reason, but I didn't want to do it all at once, so I did this little piece. When I saw how horrible I would look with all blonde hair, I decided not to do the rest, but I just never really got around to dying it back." Seth pulls the piece around so that it's right in front of his eyes. "And now it won't grow anymore."

Dean laughs, shaking his head. "You're crazy, kid."

Seth drops his blonde hair and crosses his arms, a pout playing across his lips. "Why do you always call me kid? I'm not _that _much younger than you."

"Yeah you are. You're not even an adult yet!" Dean ruffles Seth's hair to add to his point. "Maybe we'll talk new nicknames when you hit 18."

The younger playfully slaps Dean's hand away. "You're such a dick!" Seth yells, before ruffling Dean's hair in return. After a few seconds, he sits up on his knees and inches closer to Dean. He pushes his hair back and laughs at the outcome. "Why is your hairline so far back?"

In what seems like a single second, Dean has Seth pinned to the bed, and he's pointing a finger at him. "We don't talk about it, you got it?"

But it's too late, because Seth can't stop laughing. "Oh my gosh, you have a receding hairline."

Seeing no other option, Dean moves his hands from Seth's shoulders to his stomach and begins tickling. Seth's initial giggles erupt into roaring laughter. "Take it back!" Dean demands.

"C-can't when y-y-you're ti-ckling me!"

"Should have thought about that." Dean says, but he stops anyways. He's looking down at Seth's pink face, and all he can do is smile. "Apologize."

"I'm sorry, I promise." He says. He then reaches up and runs a gentle hand through Dean's hair. "I like your hair."

And there goes Dean's heart, dropping straight into his stomach. The feeling of Seth's fingers in his hair is igniting every emotion he'd felt the night before. Maybe even more, because now the contact comes with the added bonus of looking into Seth's eyes. The younger boy is smiling up at him, seemingly oblivious to the internal warfare going on in Dean's head. He doesn't know what he _should_ do next, but damn, he knows what he _wants _to do…

"Seth, you awake?"

The voice on the other side of the door belongs to Seth's mother, and it's enough to knock Dean out of the trance he's in. He jumps off Seth just before she walks in.

"Dean, when did you get here?"

At the moment, Dean is too breathless to speak, so Seth answers for him.

"He came over last night so that I could help him with his homework. You guys were already sleeping so I didn't ask, sorry."

"Oh nonsense, you both know that Dean is welcome here anytime! How are you sweetie? You hungry?"

"I, uhh..."

"Great! I'll go start some chocolate chip pancakes!"

**A/N: Title from the song ****_Crave You _****by Flight Facilities **


End file.
